A longtime veteran of fire departments in the D.C. area has been nominated to become the next chief of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) announced his nomination of Corey Smedley on Thursday to helm the department in suburban Maryland. Smedley, who was in the Army Reserve before pursuing his fire career, previously served as a deputy fire chief in Prince George’s County and fire chief in Alexandria.
Smedley retired from Alexandria in January after eight years in the department, where he became the city’s first African American fire chief. In announcing his retirement from Alexandria, the city highlighted Smedley’s leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, improving department staffing levels and the opening of a “state-of-the-art” emergency operations center as some of his accomplishments.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
